Caring for your aging parents can be doubly challenging, especially with the problems caused by the ongoing pandemic. Older adults are particularly vulnerable to physical and mental health problems as official data revealed. Add to these issues your own limitations, such as financially and time-wise.
While you would want to spend as much time as possible with them, you have the responsibility of also earning money for yourself, your family, and your parents. This huge burden on your shoulders could greatly hamper your capability to personally take care of your seniors even if it’s something you’d do in a heartbeat. However, these issues should not stop you from looking after them and giving them the love and attention that they deserve.
Here are five ways to care for your senior parents with your busy schedule:
1. Hire a professional caregiver.
It’s commonplace these days to get professional caregivers to look after the daily needs of seniors. Whether you want your parents to age in place or you prefer getting a hospice care nurse to care for your senior parents in a dedicated facility, the idea is to entrust them only to someone with training on taking care of aging adults. Keep in mind that seniors have unique health and wellness requirements from yours, so it only makes sense to seek professional help to care for them.
2. Give them lots of vitamins and healthy food.
Available data show that older adults (aged 50 and above) are 4 to 13 times at a higher risk of hospitalization than people aged 18 to 29, while they are 30 to 630 times more likely to die due to COVID-19 when compared with the risks faced by people under the same age bracket. These significantly higher risks mean that they do need to strengthen their immune system through vitamin supplements and healthy food. You only have to make sure that you provide your parents these, so they’ll have a better chance of resisting the ill effects of COVID-19 should they get infected with it.
3 Establish a visitation or bonding schedule.
No matter how busy you may be, you should find time to actually bond with your parents regularly. You can do so by setting a weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly visitation or bonding with them, so they’ll always have something to look forward to. You may give your parents the best caregiver or provide them with the most nutritious food but the time that you actually spend with them is the best way to show that you care for them deeply.
4. Involve other family members.
Looking after your senior parents should not fall solely on your shoulders. If you have siblings who can take turns with you to care for your parents, then you must involve them. Also, if you have grown-up kids who can chip in to care for their grandparents, then don’t hesitate to give them caregiving roles. It doesn’t matter how small or big each one’s role is, what matters is that you’ll have plenty of help to look after your aging parents and continue being productive.
5. Monitor them from afar using modern tech.
If you happen to live in another house or another state, you can still keep tabs on your parents’ whereabouts and condition by using internet-capable devices. It could include a CCTV bulb with two-way audio capability, a smartphone or tablet with communication apps such as Zoom or Messenger, or a monitoring device that sends alerts to your smartphone about the potential danger to your parents’ health and safety.
With these five simple ways as your blueprint, your job of taking care of your aging parents should be much easier.